## Colophon tags:: url:: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/europe-wakes-up-to-a-tectonic-shift-in-the-continent-s-geopolitics-12944601.html %% title:: Europe wakes up to a tectonic shift in the continent’s geopolitics type:: [[clipped-note]] author:: [[@moneycontrol.com]] %% ## Notes > The hypocrisy and hectoring were all too visible, as Vance waxed eloquent about the sanctity of democratic values, liberty and free speech and chastised Europe for abandoning them – even as team Trump was trampling over all of these normative values and principles in the US within days of assuming office. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/mYEyvu59Ee-50QuhMKI5rw/www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/europe-wakes-up-to-a-tectonic-shift-in-the-continent-s-geopolitics-12944601.html) > Europe wakes up to a tectonic shift in the continent’s geopolitics — [view in context](https://hyp.is/mg1M_u59Ee-XcA_6CRBXow/www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/europe-wakes-up-to-a-tectonic-shift-in-the-continent-s-geopolitics-12944601.html) ⬆️ date:: [[2025-02-19]] <br> > The war in Ukraine remains the immediate challenge and European leaders were shell shocked to learn that President Trump had spoken with his Russian counterpart President Putin over a possible ‘deal’ to end the war and that preliminary negotiations would take place on Tuesday (February 18) in Riyadh. Neither Europe nor Ukraine would be at the deliberations and the dismay was evident in Paris even as the leaders gathered tried to put up a brave front. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/uS9FQu59Ee-E628SzSjdDQ/www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/europe-wakes-up-to-a-tectonic-shift-in-the-continent-s-geopolitics-12944601.html) ⬆️ 😶 <br> > The leaders expressed divergent, individual views about the Trump-triggered churn over Ukraine that had caught them by surprise but were agreed that any long term security policies that would be evolved – including increased defence spending by EU states – would ultimately have to include an American guarantee. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/3EBYjO59Ee-OwMPkStLzaA/www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/europe-wakes-up-to-a-tectonic-shift-in-the-continent-s-geopolitics-12944601.html) > The Paris meeting was an emergency summit and clearly there was not enough time for the usual staff work to be done by senior officials for a joint statement to be issued. It was conveyed that the Munich shock administered by Vance would be discussed in a larger EU-NATO framework.The immediate inference that follows from Munich and Paris is that the trans-Atlantic alliance which was considered to be the foundation of US-led Western primacy in the international arena is now in considerable disarray. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/_wEZzu59Ee-Hu4-AN6Ptow/www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/europe-wakes-up-to-a-tectonic-shift-in-the-continent-s-geopolitics-12944601.html) > Will the EU accept what emerges from the US-Russia talks to end the war? On current evidence it appears that Russia will not have to return any of the Ukrainian territory it has wrested – illegally – and Ukraine will have to accept that it cannot aspire to be a NATO member in the future. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/BTqZHu5-Ee-f0BudUmBx4Q/www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/europe-wakes-up-to-a-tectonic-shift-in-the-continent-s-geopolitics-12944601.html) ⬆️ 🤨 <br> > Upbraiding Germany for trying to stifle voices of the extreme right-wing constituency (some of whose members extol Hitler and Nazi rule), Vance snubbed Chancellor Olaf Scholz by meeting with Alice Weidel, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/I5JxKu5-Ee-Gqu-PnHV0WQ/www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/europe-wakes-up-to-a-tectonic-shift-in-the-continent-s-geopolitics-12944601.html) > An ironic trend line is discernible in Europe. World War II ended in 1945 with the Axis powers led by Germany being defeated and it was hoped that fascism and related right wing ideology had been buried in an irrevocable manner.That hope alas, has been belied at Munich. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/MXCIaO5-Ee-r_JuIlK_54A/www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/europe-wakes-up-to-a-tectonic-shift-in-the-continent-s-geopolitics-12944601.html) ⬆️ (sigh) <br>